Esme, High Empress of Vaisey

Esme High Empress of Vaisey (6 February 1665 – 1 November 1894) was High Empress of the Britannica Empire [later renamed the Vaisey Empire] from 8 March 1702 to 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, underneath immense political pressure from her privy council as well as her own internal conflicts, Britannica merged with their much smaller imperial neighbor: the Empire of Darmstadt after which she chose to use the name "Vaisey" derived from her mother's maiden name of "Valdivia" or as she was known after her marriage; "Vale". She continued to reign as High Empress of Vaisey and the Valderrama [held in personal union with the imperial crown] until her death in 1894. She was the last longest-reigning monarch of the Britannica Empire and the first High Empress of the Vaisey Empire.

Esme was born in the reign of Elizabeth II to her younger sister and heir presumptive, Natasha II, whose suspected Protestantism made her unpopular among the people of the Britannica Empire. In wide contrast Esme's mother Esmé of France was more popular and chose to educate her daughters away from courtly life which her father refused to acquiesce to. The fiercely and notoriously stubborn Esme refused to go with either of her parents and chose to settle her court and that of her elder sister near their grandparents in the Empire of Darmstadt Empire - something which scandalized the Britannica court at the time. On Elizabeth's instructions, Esme and her eldest sister Henrietta were raised as Roman Catholics. Henrietta married a distant cousin of their's [Charles II] whom had converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholism - Esme was infuriated and the relationship between two of the most beloved grand duchesses [in modern written history of the Empire] rapidly deteriorated. Esme married a son of Leopold I [the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire] in 1683 thus uniting two powerful empires - unlike her weak-willed husband, Esme was a "viper of a woman" and suo jure High Empress of Britannica in her own right. On Elizabeth II's death in 1685, Natasha succeeded to the throne, but just three years later she was deposed in the Thérèse Revolution of 1688. Henrietta and her husband became joint monarchs - Esme disapproved of her sister's husband holding equal power with her older sister and "reminded" her in a letter that: "Never yield to anybody, you are not a mere Grand Duchess of this Empire! You are an High Empress, your husband is merely your consort not your political or social equal! You are the authority whom sits on this Empire's throne not him!" Although the sisters had once been as close as "two pees in a pod" - their relationship became so divided that even their own advisers were wary of leaving them in the same room alone for more than an hour at a time. Henrietta and her husband had no children. After Henriette's death in 1694, her husband [the son of Leopold I] tried to claim the imperial throne, citing that Henriette's husband [his wife's distant cousin] had a distant rather than direct claim to the throne [the claim was through an illegimente line]. Upon the distant cousin's death in 1702, Esme succeeded him as High Empress and her meek and weak-willed husband became her sole consort.

During her reign, Esme favored moderate and mostly passive tactics in regards to both domestic and international issues - she and her husband disliked going to war [especially if it was unnecessary]. Their happy and harmonious marriage produced several children; Esme refrained from having any more consorts [her husband was her sole consort] though she did keep concubines in cause that her husband die from childbed fever. She had a close relationship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; an English courtier with whom she passionately loved. Her husband was miffed and looked down on the Duchess seeing her as a "pest" and saw her as an obstacle in his way to Esme's affections. He called her a "hussy" and was rather quite demeaning towards her; yet was kind and sweet towards her in public and in front of Esme. Esme however, loved her husband much more than she did Sarah - she wrote love poems to him everyday, prayed from him whenever he fell ill and enjoyed writing passionate love letters to him [something which enraged Sarah]; in relation, Sarah was rather cold and professional-like towards Esme's husband, changing to become more cruel and vengeful when the two were alone. She eventually fell in love with both Esme and her husband - becoming their shared concubine.

Plagued by ill health throughout her life, she was constantly complaining about her terribly frail body and was easily tired out by even the slightest of things. Despite having conceived over a thousand children, she had only 44 surviving children at the time of her death in 1894. She was the last monarch of the House of Hesdin. She was succeeded by her eldest son: Victor II of the House of Irene-Aquitania.

Early life
Esme was born at 11:39 p.m. on 6 February 1665 at St Dernière's Palace, Plisetskaya, the fourth child and second daughter of the Grand Duchess Pavlovna of Modena (afterwards Natasha II), and her first wife, Princess Esmé of France. Her father was the youngest sister and only surviving sibling of High Empress Elizabeth II, who ruled the ages-old Empire of Britannica, and her mother was the daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his first wife Maria Theresa of Spain. At her Roman Catholism baptism in the Night Chapel at St Dernière's, her older sister Henrietta, was one of her godparents, along with the Duchess of Baymont and the Archbishop of Valor, Mary Taylor. Esme and her older sister, Henrietta, were part of the eighteen children of their parents who survived past their infant years into adulthood.

As a child, Esme suffered from a bad back and constant boils which erupted from her face, becoming extremely visible - Esme was so conscious of this that she often declined to appear at court, citing her medical condition as "simply horrendous" in preserved letters written from her to her mother. For medical treatment she was sent to France, where she met the future Queen Anne of Great Britain, with both of them staying in the home of Henrietta Maria of France and later on the home of Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans. Owing to the sudden death of Anne's aunt in 1670, Anne returned to England and Esme was escorted [by heavily armed guards] back to the Empire. Her mother died the following year.

As was traditional in the imperial family, Esme and her siblings were brought up away from courtly life, often enjoying horse-riding in the countryside, hunting, cooking, baking, reading, acting, and learning about diplomacy. On the instructions of Elizabeth II, they were raised as simply as possible and had a rather rigorous schedule, in regards to their schooling. Placed in the care of Colonel Edward and Lady Frances Villiers, their education was focused on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was appointed as Esme's preceptor.

Around 1671, Esme first made the acquaintance of Sarah Jennings

Marriage
In November 1677, Esme's eldest sister, Henrietta married their most distant Protestant relative [one of the sister's tenth cousins-thrice removed], a Dagmarian prince by the name of Charles. The marriage took place at Hyde Palace in Hyde Park, London, but Esme couldn't attend the wedding as she had fallen gravely ill from an unknown airborne virus. By the time she had recovered, Henrietta had already left for her new life in the Dagmarian Empire. Grand Duchess Frances Georgina (the wife of Archduke Rudolf) was appointed as her new governess. A year later, Esme and her stepmother visited Henrietta and her husband in Holland for two weeks [where the couple had been during the entirety of their honeymoon].

Accession of Natasha I
When Elizabeth II died in 1685, Esme's father became High Empress Natasha I of Britannica and Valderrama. To the consternation of the

Reign
Esme became High Empress upon the death of High Emperor Charles I on 8 March 1702, and was immediately popular. In her first speech to the public population of the Empire, on 11 March, she distanced herself from her late and greatly unpopular brother-in-law and said, "The ideals of my brother-in-law's reign are now dead. My heart, mind, body, soul - everything that once solely belonged to me, now belongs to this empire, you are my citizens and I shall do everything and anything in my power to protect my empire, it's people and the new ideals this empire now follows!"

Shortly after her accession, her consort [her husband] was introduced to the public - he was instantly popular due to his love for the arts and sciences.

Quotes

 * (To Azul) "Dragon Shifters are said to be mistakes - ugly mistakes that should be erased. I believe otherwise, they are just as human as any one of my people - they simply have powers that make them unique."
 * (To her soldiers) "Shoot them down. I will never allow a modern aircraft to fly in the airspace where my dragon shifters reign dominant!"
 * (To herself) "I made so many mistakes that I don`t know if I can repent."
 * (To the other Heads of State; World War I) "They are my citizens! If you put a single hand on them, then the White Dragon shall reign supreme in my skies once more!"

Trivia

 * Esme was named for her mother who was her namesake. In doing so, it inspired Esme to reuse the name "Esme" as a middle name for her eldest daughter: Anne Marie Esme Irene-Aquitania.
 * She disliked her eldest son: Victor II, considering him to be vain, an ineffective ruler and politically inadequate to reign as the sole monarch. Due to his mental illness; her favorite daughter-in-law, Alexei Alexandrovna governed for him underneath a regency.
 * It is implied that she loved her eldest sister [Henriette] more than she ever did Sarah and even her own husband; how true that is is unknown.
 * Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Archduke Rudolf of Austria greatly admired the young High Empress as she was one of the most powerful absolute monarchs in Europe itself, yet she was fair, wise beyond her years and understanding of the people whom she ruled over.
 * Prince George of Denmark the husband of Queen Anne, also greatly admired the Roman Catholic Empress even if he disagreed privately with her religion and beliefs.
 * Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was also an admirer of High Empress Esme, writing to his mother that "she is so stunning, if she was not already married - I would have proposed to her myself."
 * The myth of the Legendary Hero of Britannica originated from an original piece of fictional writing loosely based on Esme and years of her reign - from early 1707 to the time of her death in 1894 - by that time, she was one of the most beloved rulers in all of European history. Her reign as High Empress of [first Britannica] and later on Vaisey was so legendary that even Nicholas II of Russia had read about her when he was a young boy and admitted to his mother later on in his life that "women empresses are so cool - I want to wed one of her daughters!"
 * Nicholas II of Russia later became one of her numerous sons-in-law, having married the youngest of Esme's daughters Alexandra Feodorovna; their offspring were Grand Duchesses Anne, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, Tsesarevich Alexei, Cadena, Alexander, Alexandra, Philip, Edward, Sophie, Philippine, Charles, Elizabeth, Christine, Katherine, Georgine, Elena, Dorothea, Helene, Natalia and Konstantin.
 * She was not the White Dragon Shifter of the Privy Council of Dragon Shifters - the White Dragon shifting powers being passed down by eating the previous holder of the dragon [in her maternal side of the family]. Thus, she "inherited" the White Dragon shifting powers from her mother and namesake - she chose to withhold the power from her eldest son [Victor II] and passed it down to the most senior of her 'middle' daughters: Hannah Pavlovna. In all actuality; it was passed down to Rose [the youngest out of all of Esme's children and daughters].
 * The White Dragon Shifters are considered warriors and protectors of the High Emperor and Empress of Vaisey - thus they are direct subordinates to both the Government as well as the Imperial Family. Before her death, Esme made an irreversible change to the Empire`s magical code of law, changing the status of the White Dragon Shifters as members of the Imperial house [making them the most senior members of the court directly underneath the Imperial family and above the Privy Council].
 * Such a change caused a stir at court - as the Grand Duchess Hannah was only 19 years old at the time of her taking the powers of the White Dragon Shifter from her mother [the current High Empress at the time] Esme.
 * Esme was never the White Dragon Shifter, her only brother [Maximilien] inherited the White Dragon Shifting powers, thus Rose ate his soul in order to gain the Shifting powers originated from the first White Dragon Shifter.
 * King Valerius was enthralled with the High Empress -